On Monday, October 29, I attended my 86th community meeting about the future of transportation on West 7th Street. I was not expecting much. I did not think attending would provide any new insights or information about what is to come. That expectation was met. Sadly, we do not have adequate funding, no leadership, and no concrete plans on how to fix the many problems on West 7th Street.

While the blame for that falls heavily on the Minnesota Department of Transportation (which the representative owned up to at the meeting and his honesty was appreciated) and Ramsey County, part of the blame falls on us as a neighborhood. At that meeting I heard the same people who have attended many of the other 85 meetings with me complaining about the same things that they have for a decade (and likely longer). One could say that this is because government officials are not listening. There may be truth to that, but we need to take some responsibility here.

Of those 85 meetings, at least a dozen were from when I was president of the Fort Road Federation’s board of directors. At that time the Federation understood that while our neighborhood is divided about the issue of transit on West 7th, overall, the neighborhood shares many values and wants many of the same things. We held a series of meetings to build consensus around a shared values statement that we could share with government decision-makers. The current president, Meg Duhr, shared many of those values in her presentation at the October 29 meeting. We all want to be able to safely cross the street, to have trees and green space, to support local businesses and to have more options than just driving a car.

At that meeting I heard many people complaining there has not been enough process and we need more community engagement. What I hear in those complaints is, “I am not getting exactly what I want, and I insist on more process until I get it.” Part of the blame for nothing happening needs to be owned by people who keep demanding more process until their exact desires are met. You will never get exactly what you want. I will never get exactly what I want.

If I had what I wanted, there would be no cars at all on West 7th and it would be one large bike lane with transit lanes to the side. Others have to realize that their desires for no transit, parking directly in front of every location, and no bike infrastructure are just as unrealistic as my desire for no cars at all.

We can, however, stand behind those shared values and find compromises that result in something being able to move forward. We do not need more process. We do not need more engagement. We do need government leaders to understand the shared values of this neighborhood and own their leadership role in moving forward a vision in line with those values. If there must be more process and engagement, it should only be with people younger than 30 years old as they will be the ones living with this project. The majority of the people at that meeting will not be.

I encourage all of us to reflect on our role in stalling improvements that may not exactly meet each of our unique needs at the expense of improvements that could meet many of our collective needs.

Dana DeMaster